London Construction - Development News Thread #1

[SlickFranky]

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2

That former bank building is being turned into a massive Moxies. They have been working on it for some time.

Actually I was talking about the other bank. The one that sits right on the NE corner of Richmond and Dundas. I think it was either BMO or CIBC.

[QuantumLeap]

The CIBC on the NE corner is indeed a nice building. Some of the clever ideas I have heard for it are turning it into some sort of media office (ala Much Music building) or into a revamped LCBO (ala Summerhill (Toronto) LCBO.

By the way Waterloo Investor, thanks for your comments. We really appreciate your animosity. We will be sure to be mocking Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge as much as possible on your SSPs. Obviously, regional cooperation is for you, a terrible thing. Please make sure you alienate our (your) friends in Hamilton, Guelph, Woodstock, Brantford, Oakville, St. Catherines, Barrie, Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton while you are at it.

[ldoto]

LTC to add a second garage

Thu, March 6, 2008

Service expands as London grows

For the first time, the London Transit Commission (LTC) is expanding beyond its east-end headquarters.

“The city’s expanding west,” said LTC general manager Larry Ducharme. “We need a facility. We need space.”

To become more efficient in growing areas of the city, the LTC plans to add more buses and build a second garage — possibly in Hyde Park — to house them in two years.

The LTC has 190 buses squeezed into its 185-bus facility at 450 Highbury Ave., where it has been since 1974.

Ducharme said the commission plans to steadily increase its fleet to about 350 buses by 2024.




The second garage will be built by 2010, he said. It will cost $20 million, $16 million of which has been doled out by the province and set aside over the years.

“We didn’t just wake up one morning and decide we need a satellite facility,” he said.

Another garage is good news for some London transit users, like Lujain Khan, 16, who lives in Byron.

The Grade 11 Oakridge secondary school student said the LTC is in serious need of more buses that run more often in the west end.

Only two of the approximately 45 bus routes in the city run in the Oakridge area, each about every half-hour.

Marc Mueller, 32, who lives at Oxford Street and Hyde Park Road, said the buses that cater to the west end don’t run late enough.

A security officer at Labatt Brewery downtown, he said he doesn’t finish work until midnight — just missing the last bus — meaning he often has to take a cab or walk almost two hours home, expending money and time.

Building a second garage to accommodate more buses is needed to fix some of those problems, said Harold Usher, a city councillor and LTC chairperson on the environment and transportation committee.

“This is very essential. Sooner or later we’re going to have to have more buses to serve our community,” he said.

Usher said the LTC buys about 12 buses every year — nine to replace old ones and three for growth.

To deal with London’s overflow of buses in the interim, a $550,000, 12-bus facility will be built this summer near the existing garage while plans for the second garage are hammered out, he said.

He said the LTC works on a “frugal system” but a second garage is just the start of the spending it needs to do.

The commission has to spend more money on basic upgrades, including on its existing facility, which is 60 years old, Usher said.

He added the LTC uses its buses longer than the seven- to 12-year average of other transit systems and about 30 or 40 buses still used in London are more than 20 years old.

It will be cheaper in the long term to buy new buses and pay for a second garage, he said.

[go_leafs_go02]

nice news!

I come from Oakridge, live just around the corner from Oxford & Hyde Park, actually really close the 19 routing, which is very limited. Having a bus garage nearby will definitely increase service around the area, which is a good thing. Hopefully bus service is improved even though service levels on the 19 Oakridge route don't justify it, but having a bus end service before 7 PM is quite depressing and annoying. Hopefully service times are extended, a bus connection route is created on Hyde Park Road from Oxford up to Fanshawe Park road, and ridership grows in Oakridge and most of the west end.

[WaterlooInvestor]

Originally Posted by QuantumLeap

By the way Waterloo Investor, thanks for your comments. We really appreciate your animosity. We will be sure to be mocking Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge as much as possible on your SSPs. Obviously, regional cooperation is for you, a terrible thing. Please make sure you alienate our (your) friends in Hamilton, Guelph, Woodstock, Brantford, Oakville, St. Catherines, Barrie, Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton while you are at it.

Actually regional cooperation is a good thing to me.

However GreatTallNorth2 and MolsonExport have already been mocking Waterloo Region in our local section for some time. I'm just "returning the favour", and letting them know if their actions continue from now on I'll continue to "return the favours".

[LondnPlanr]

Originally Posted by WaterlooInvestor

However GreatTallNorth2 and MolsonExport have already been mocking Waterloo Region in our local section for some time. I'm just "returning the favour", and letting them know if their actions continue from now on I'll continue to "return the favours".

So, if you are acting as the 'police', then I quote Lisa Simpson:

"Who will police the police?"

I have a better idea than bugging us in our forum: How's about taking the high road and ignoring them on your forum? I have nothing to do with them posting in your forum, so why do I have to see your sarcastic retorts?

[ldoto]

Apartment and townhouse construction helped break a slide in London-area housing starts last month.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) said there were 171 homes starts in London-St. Thomas in February, up 20 per cent from the same month last year.

Single-home starts were down 14 per cent to 111 last month.

But that was more than offset by multi-unit starts, including 28 townhouses and a 30-unit affordable-housing apartment building on King Street.

Overall housing starts are down 48 per cent for the first two months of the year compared to 2007.




Housing starts in 2007 were the second-highest since 1990 but there was a significant downturn in the last half of the year.

CMHC market analyst David Lan said nasty weather this winter may have been factor in the slow start this year.

“All this snow has put a damper on things and we will probably see more of this in March. Things will likely pick up again in April,” said Lan

[ldoto]

Photo business focuses on city

Wed, March 12, 2008

Lifetouch will create 150 jobs in London for its new provincial operations centre.


A national photography business is making London its provincial home.

Lifetouch Canada Inc., which specializes in school photography, opened a provincial administrative office in London last month.

The company plans to establish a provincial operations centre with up to 150 employees within three years, Tracy Noble, operations manager for Lifetouch, said yesterday.

"We think London is a great city, very welcoming and we have good staff there now. It is very promising," said Noble from the firm's Winnipeg head office.

"This is the first phase. We expect to expand and bring in all of our Ontario operations into that centre within the next three years."




Lifetouch has two photo studios in London, one at the University of Western Ontario and the other on Blakie Road.

The company opened an administrative office last month in an 11,000-square-foot space on Bradley Avenue that contains a call centre and sales and administrative offices.

"They felt it was a good, central location," said Glenda James, the real estate broker who sold them the property.

"They are very excited about being in London. What makes this special is this is a new company. That says a lot about our facilities."

Laurie Wallace, manager of the Bradley Avenue location, said Lifetouch did a demographic study of London and other cities when looking at where to locate its new provincial office.

"We found that London was best suited for us," she said. "We ruled out Toronto because of the expenses and the costs."

Lifetouch has been looking for a provincial centre for about one year. London was chosen because of its central location, direct flights to Winnipeg, quality of its workforce and lower housing costs compared with Toronto, officials said.

"We like the stability of the economy here. Toronto is much more transient," Noble said.

At the call centre, customers can call in with questions about picture packages. The accounts receivable office will handle new orders.

The new office employs 34 people. In the fall, the company's peak season, that will climb to about 70.

In the next three years, the administrative function being done at smaller photo studios in other Ontario cities will be shifted to London, and that will mean up to 150 jobs.

"It's a branch office now but will be a centre for all of Ontario," Noble said.

Lifetouch will keep its photo studios in London as well as other cities, she said.

[QuantumLeap]

According to recently released figures, as of March 1, building permits in the city had already reached $199 million, about a third of last year's total. While the numbers are principally due to exciting new institutional growth, as already reported, numbers are also up about 25% for residential permits.

[QuantumLeap]

PS An application for a 140,000 sq ft expansion of McCormick's on Clarke Road is going to Planning on Monday.

[ldoto]

Fri, March 14, 2008



The city of London will learn today that Queen's Park is allocating $14 million to help it fund social programs, The Free Press has learned.

The announcement, under the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, brings to $54.6 million the amount London has received during the past four years. It will help to cover welfare, disability support and drug programs.

Attorney General Chris Bentley of London late yesterday confirmed today's announcement and said it's part of the government's plan to help municipalities deal with rising social program costs.

The London grant is part of an $870-million allocation for 393 municipalities for 2008.

Along with plans to return all remaining costs under the Ontario Drug Benefit, and all costs under the Ontario Disability Support Program, Bentley said the grants "will save millions of dollars" for London.




"This is a substantial benefit to the city," the London West Liberal MPP said.

The municipal partnership fund was established a decade ago and until four years ago London received no financial help for reasons Bentley said he could not explain.

"They just excluded London," he said of the former governments of Conservative premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves.

Bentley dismissed a suggestion the funding announcements and this week's promise of a share of provincial government surpluses for municipalities means local governments will see little direct help in Finance Minister Dwight Duncan's March 25 budget.

"I would not make that assumption," he said, stressing, however, he has no idea what the budget contains." "

[ldoto]

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuantumLeap
PS An application for a 140,000 sq ft expansion of McCormick's on Clarke Road is going to Planning on Monday.

November 12, 2007
NOTICE OF APPLICATION
TO AMEND THE ZONING BY-LAW



The purpose and effect of this zoning change is to allow the existing food
processing building to be expanded.

The Municipal Council for the City of London is considering an amendment to the City’s Zoning Bylaw

Z.-1 for the lands shown on the map as attached. The requested change is described below.

We are advising you of this application to invite your comments.
APPLICANT: McCormick Canada Property Co.

LOCATION: 1919 Oxford Street East and 600 Clarke Road

[ldoto]

Downtown business and land owners "enthusiastically" endorsed the latest strategy aimed at repairing London's ailing core.

The owners met privately yesterday to discuss a task force report and plot their next move.

"The enthusiasm to move forward is huge," MainStreet London manager Janette MacDonald said yesterday.

"It validates a lot of what we're already doing and encourages us to take it to the next level. There are some sensitive issues in there (the report) and we'll have to boldly go forward."

Long-term parking and the need for a multi-use parking structure, keeping office jobs downtown and public transit are major "sensitive" issues that will have to be overcome, MacDonald said.



"We need to put our heads together to find solutions," she said. "We absolutely want to have public transit downtown, but we think we need a better operation, a downtown bus terminal that's not at the corner of Richmond Street and Dundas."

London Transit has so far resisted putting a terminal elsewhere in the downtown, which it considers the hub of bus operations from all corners of the city.

"We are not pro-car, but we are pro-people and we want more people coming downtown and living downtown. And we want a strong public transit system," MacDonald said.

MainStreet London and the London Downtown Business Association formed the Downtown Task Force.

Controller Gord Hume led the volunteer committee established to come up with a vision for the core for the next decade.

The task force released its report last month.

Bob Usher, who chairs the London Downtown Business Association, also was pleased with the reaction at yesterday's meeting.

"There was a substantial amount of energy," he said. "We discussed all the issues in the report and now we're planning to come back (at an April 19 meeting) and figure out how we're going to attack these issues in the short, medium and long term."

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

- Get buses off Dundas Street between Wellington and Richmond streets by 2010, eliminate parking there by 2013 and ban daytime traffic by 2018.

- Double the core's current population of 6,000.

- Open a grocery store in the core within five years.

- Make downtown the greenest in Canada, including planting 100 trees by 2010.

- Offer wireless Internet throughout downtown.

[QuantumLeap]

London's defence plant is bringing a new vehicle to market, helping it win a national award from a Canadian defence magazine.

The Canadian Defence Review, in a survey released yesterday, has ranked General Dynamics Land Systems Canada as the top defence plant in the country.

Among the reasons for the honour is the "innovation" the plant has shown developing a new, bigger, more heavily armoured armoured vehicle, the LAV-H.

"They have a lot going for them. They are very successful at what they do," said Peter Kitchen, editor-in-chief of the magazine.

"They are real innovators and now they are bringing out a new military vehicle, a new armoured vehicle -- the LAV-H."




The 25-tonne (55,000-pound) vehicle is based on the 17-tonne LAV III infantry carrier, but boasts additional protection from roadside bombs and heavier armour.

"It offers more heavy protection and greater capacity for Canadian forces," said Kitchen. "It is an example that GDLS is not just a branch plant here, it develops new vehicles. It has been around a long time and this exemplifies the innovation you find there."

The magazine was also impressed by GDLS Canada's support for Canadian forces -- it is the supplier for light armoured vehicles now being used by Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Since about 85 per cent of its products are exported to the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Australia, amongst other countries, it also helps boost global trade figures.

"We are honoured. There are other significant defence companies in Canada and it is great that we were chosen," said Ken Yamashita, GDLS Canada spokesperson.

There were 40 other plants contending for the title, among them: CAE, a Canadian manufacturer of flight simulators; L-3 Communications Corp., which makes communications systems for military vehicles; Raytheon, which develops various defence technologies; and Thales, an aerospace firm.

"I like to think this is because of the excellence of our product, our good customer relations and our workforce," said Yamashita.

GDLS Canada employs about 1,800 people in its London plant on Oxford Street.

Last year's No.1-ranked company was General Dynamics Canada in Ottawa, a sister company that makes electronic systems and employs more than 2,000.

Both are divisions of defence giant General Dynamics Corp. headquartered in Falls Church, Va., with annual sales of S$27 billion in 2007.

The magazine has its complete list of top 40 companies on its website: www.CanadianDefenceReview.com.

[london2020]

Does anyone know what the city is planning to do with that terrible Sarnia bridge over the tracks between Wonderland and Hyde Park? I've heard it being referred to as a "heritage" item, but I'd consider it to be absolute abomination. I was half hoping the whole thing would fall apart after that time it got damaged (provided no one got hurt! )

There is a ton of development going on there and the area will be totally filled in, yet they're leaving that POS there? What's more, as we all know there is a planned apartment building not far from the intersection of Sarnia and Hyde Park.

[MolsonExport]

Yeah, I live about 1 km from that shitty bridge. and cross it from time to time. It is the Marie-Anne de Cicco way: rezone, build, but do not expand the infrastructure.

[QuantumLeap]

Welcome, London2020! Any significance to 2020?

[ldoto]

btw Welcome London 2020 to the london Forums!!!!!

This week’s provincial budget could pump an estimated $100 million into London.

Aside from $56 million to rid an East London site of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), at least that much again will flow into the city one way or another.

London’s MPPs conceded today as they highlighted the spending plan by Finance Minister Dwight Duncan that some of the funds come in direct dollops of cash while other money flows less obviously through increased support for health and education, in which London is a leader.

Among the goodies for London:

-$5.82 million to be used by the city as it pleases for repairs to roads and bridges. That’s London’s population-based share of $400 million for municipalities outside Toronto and Hamilton.




-$3.3 million for social housing.

-$7.5 million for research at the University of Western Ontario into bio-energy and alternative-energy sources including biodiesel, biogas and uses of agricultural wastes.

Chris Bentley, MPP for London West, said other benefits will accrue to London with measures like a 10-year tax exemption for businesses that convert ideas into commercial products and jobs and tax credits for digital media in which London is a leader.

There’s also the city’s share of a $355-million program to retrain 20,000 workers, expanded apprenticeships and millions more to renew and expand training facilities at places like Fanshawe College and UWO.

Bentley and colleagues Khalil Ramal (L – London-Fanshawe) and Deb Matthews (L –London-North-Centre) hinted there may be further good news Friday when the province announces $150 million in spending on local infrastructure projects. London has applied for $11 million to speed development of Innovation Park along Veterans’ Memorial Parkway south of Hamilton Road.

Dave Leckie, director of roads and transportation for the city, said council has to decide where the new money for roads and bridges is to be allocated, but he has his personal preference.

“My inclination is very much to put it into the area of the pothole situation,” he said. And that means rehabilitating roads before they age and sprout potholes.

New money for London and elsewhere helps in many ways.

“It is balanced,” Bentley said of the overall spending plan, which continues to avoid provincial deficits.

“We are planning that by 2011 we will have had six balanced budgets in a row for the first time since 1908,” he said.

In that year, the premier was James Whitney, a Conservative. Bentley took issue with a modern Conservative, however — federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty — for meddling in provincial affairs by arguing business taxes should be cut when studies have shown taxes are a small factor when companies decide where to locate.

“It would be helpful for governments at all levels to highlight their strengths publicly and keep their differences private,” Bentley said, noting the worrisome side effect of public spats is a negative impact on investor and public confidence.

[MolsonExport]

good ol' Jim Flatulence

[Ldotbyron]

why doesnt London have its own ssp local?